Chapter 2 An Alpha View

I had fled, but the night stayed with me like a second skin, the meeting with Elena not going away from my thoughts. Every stride back to the den drew me towards the truth I couldn't escape-responsibility, threats, and a rival alpha breathing down my neck.

Still all I could see was her. She defied in her green eyes. Her heat when I had pressed her against that frigid wall.

I shook my head and pushed my thoughts back towards the key card in my pocket. It was leverage, a lifeline for my bag, not just some plastic.

Cain would prevail without it, and I could not enable that to happen. My pack included everything I had. All I could afford to give concern to.

As I moved, the roofs melted into a black mosaic. The city was alive with its usual anarchy: sirens in the distance, muted arguments pouring out of open windows, the buzz of a town never truly slept in. This city, this part of me, and yet I was invisible within it.

Tension permeated the air in the den when I arrived. My pack was family, linked by survival and desperation, not simply a collection of waswolves. However, today their eyes revealed they yearned for more than just survival. They needed hope.

"You understood it? My second-in-command, Milo, moved forward with a mixed-relief and tired look. Lean yet muscular, his wolf was always ready to battle just under the surface.

From my pocket, I withdrew the key card and threw it across the room's middle table." Got it.

Though it was clear that my group exhaled collectively, the uncertainties that lingered in their eyes was not eliminated. They trusted me, but trust was limited when survival was on the line.

"This buys us time," I responded, my voice calm, demanding. "Cain will not move without this."

"Time for what, Ryker?" Milo spoke in a strong, annoyed tone. He's not going to quit. You're aware of? And we cannot stay in hiding indefinitely.

I fired back, my alpha presence exploding, not cowering. Milo flinched, but I lowasd my voice before going on. We'll work things out. As always.

Milo nodded, but our mutual tension persisted. He had nothing to be incorrect. Cain's threat was a noose tightening around every one of our necks. I could not, however, exhibit frailty. Not now.

"Ryker..."" A calmer voice emerged from the conflict, and I turned to see the youngest pack member, Lily. Her wide eyes revealed concern. "What if he discovers us?""

"He won't." My response was instinctive, but the reality was heavier than I could have let on. There would not be a struggle if Cain discovered us. There would be murder.

Later that evening, I was standing on the brink of the rooftop with a city view. Sharp, the wind carried the smell of rain and far-off danger. Restless, my wolf awoke inside of me.

Her face came back in my memory. Elena." Her voice, harsh and uncompromising, wanting to know who I was, still audible to me.

I hadn't expected her to see through the gaps in my mask, nor to run across her. What she made me feel was dangerous. Dangerous and unachievable.

I turned around, not sure it was Milo because I heard a faint sound behind me. He moved deliberately and with weight. He always showed respect by making sure I knew he was arriving.

You're distracted, he remarked straightforwardly.

"I'm good."

Sure you're. He stood up next to me, looking out over the city. "You're thinking about her..."

I didn't reply. Milo understood me too well; denial of it would just make things worse.

"She's having problems, Ryker."

Knowing.

"She's also the daughter of the police head.

"I am aware of it as well."

Milo groaned and ran a hand over his hair. You're running with fire here. Cain's breath down our necks, and you're... what? Considering a female who, should she know the truth, would turn you in?

"She doesn't know the truth," I said, my voice sharper than I wanted. And she's not simply a girl.

Milo raised his eyebrows, but he refrained from pushing farther. Rather, he looked at me with equal parts annoyance and sympathy. Just keep sight of what counts.

He went without saying another word, and I appreciated the quiet that followed. But his comments stayed, biting at the margins of my consciousness.

The next day I cannot avoid her.

The cosmos, or destiny, or whatever merciless power controlled my existence, appeared ready to toss us together.

Instead of staking out Cain's next action, I found myself on high alert at the brink of a packed marketplace.

Before I saw her, the familiar aroma of her perfume assaulted me; when I turned, she was there.

She was standing beside a vendor, her black hair free around her shoulders, her face austere as she asked someone. She was working, I understood, gathering data like a predator hunting.

I ought to have started to go. Should have kept in the background. But I failed to.

I blurted before I could stop myself, "Elena."

She turned, her eyes tightening at the sight of me. She seemed surprised for a single second, then something sharper soon took front stage. Question.

"You," she murmured, her voice low and laced with steel. "This's where you're working?

"Shopping," I murmured, throwing her a smile I could feel.

Her lips drew a thin line, then she moved in front. You're lying.

I bent my head to let her see the brink of my pleasure. "You don't believe me? I feel wounded.

"I hardly know you at all."

Her proximity now, too close, caused my wolf to rise once more in response, clenching my fists.

The words was out before I could stop them, and for a while we simply gazed at one another, the surroundings blurring into nothing. Maybe you should.

Her mouth closed, and she shook her head. Back off. Her voice colder now, she added, "Stay out of my way."

I felt her words weigh down on me as she turned and left. Still, one thing was clear even as I watched her go.

I was not planning to linger in her path.

And something informed me she was not staying out of me.